


Your Voice Brings Me Home

by Kyle_Rose_137



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuddling & Snuggling, Dorky Idiots, Drug Abuse, Drug Use, Drugs, Drunk Texting, Drunken Flirting, Eating Disorders, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Forgive my need to tag everything, Gay Disaster Keith (Voltron), How Do I Tag, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Suicide, It's only chapter 2, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Abuse, Past Relationship(s), Phone Calls & Telephones, Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recreational Drug Use, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Slow Burn, Tags May Change, Texting, Wow these tags are getting angsty, fluffy fluff fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-08 08:43:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21232991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyle_Rose_137/pseuds/Kyle_Rose_137
Summary: When you work at a mental health hotline, you don’t usually get wrong number calls. Especially not from a moody college student who for some reason keeps calling back.(Aka where Lance works at a mental health hotline and Keith ends up calling accidentally)[Updates are back on again. I regained interest and will be continuing to post chapters from now on]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written anything in a long while and this isn't beta'd so any typos or grammar issues are my fault hope you all enjoy! Also this chapter is really short compared to the length of the other chapters.

Over the past 2 years, life hadn’t changed much for Lance McClain. He was still going to the same university, working the same job, and hanging with the same friends. It wasn’t like Lance wanted a different life or anything, he loved the way things were in his life at the moment. His friends were supportive and his family called every weekend. Plus, he was only two semesters away from getting his bachelor's degree. But like everyone else he had his issues. Mainly, he was bored. Bored with life, bored with his job, and just bored with everything really. Of course he kept himself busy, he didn’t really have much of a choice else he’d go stir crazy. But on slow days at work or days when he didn't have plans with his friends, he realized how dull his life was getting.

Lance's job didn't help of course. He would wait for a call and honestly that was a good portion of what he actually did on the average day. He would wait and wait until someone called him to rant about their shitty ex or ask for help calming down from a panic attack. And Lance would be there, doing anything he could to help. He liked to think he was good at his job, he liked to think that he helped people. He liked to think that him being there made a difference.

However, some days were still boring no matter what Lance did to entertain himself. This was one of those days. He'd only gotten a few calls, and the ones he did get were people just trying to find counseling clinics. That was a very common issue they got called about since the hotline center worked beside a counseling center. Though there was one girl that called and cried for a good 15 minutes before hanging up. Lance didn't know what that whole bit was about other than catching bits of sobs about a boyfriend breaking up with her.

When the phone rang, Lance nearly jumped up to grab it. It had been a rather slow day, so any chance to do something other than just sit around was going to be snatched up almost immediately.

“Hello this is the Mental Health Hotline, I’m Lance is there anything I can do for you?” Lance asked, keeping his voice soft and gentle. There were a few beats of silence, a quiet static in the background that came along with pretty much every phone call.

“I- fucking hell-” a man groaned on the other end. “Of course my dumb ass fucking self is gonna call a damn wrong number.” The last bit was obviously not meant for Lance to hear. The guy had said it under his breath in an exhausted and airy voice.

“Is there something I can help you with?” Lance asked, keeping his voice in the same calm and cautious tone as before.

“Well yeah I guess… I have a bit of an issue but it’s not really me, it’s a friend of mine if that’s cool…” The guy sounded hesitant, like he wasn’t sure if talking to Lance was okay. “I’m Keith by the way.”

“Of course that’s okay Keith.” Lance said with a smile. Surprisingly, the health center got a lot of calls with people asking for advice on how to help others with mental health issues. At this point, Lance was used to hearing and answering these questions.

“Okay,” there were a few moments of silence before Keith sighed and went on to ask his questions. “I’m worried that my one friend might try to kill himself. He has a fuck ton of issues and doesn’t really open up to people which fucking sucks. I’m just not sure what to say to him anymore. Not like I can be much help since I’m kinda shit at dealing with people…” Keith sighed. “Never mind it’s stupid.”

“Of course it’s not.” Lance argued, throwing away his false tone in favor of his normal speech. “Look, I totally get it. It’s hard to help someone you care about. The best thing you can do is let him know that there are people there for him, people that love him and want to help him.”

There was a quiet laugh on the other end of the line. It was bitter and quiet, more like Keith was just chuckling to himself.

“Yeah I guess. Put down the whole sweet angel act now haven’t you?” Keith pointed out. Lance wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be an insult or not.

“Excuse you but I’m a great person. I’m nice to everyone.” Lance insisted and Keith just laughed again, louder this time.

“Wow modest much?” The other asked sarcastically and Lance rolled his eyes.

“Not my fault I’m a likable person and know it.” This made Keith snort a bit.

“Uh huh, and I’m an alien.” Sarcasm once again, and some part of Lance didn’t mind this bantering. It felt nice compared to how his life usually was.

“Yeah yeah whatever you say Keith.” Lance said, leaning back in his chair and a small smile staying on his face.

There was a sudden sound of a car horn going off and the sound of Keith cursing under his breath. Lance immediately furrowed his brows in worry.

“Hey man is something wrong?” Lance asked. It sounded like the guy almost got hit by a damn car after all.

“Yeah I’m fine. I should go though. Bye Lance.” Keith sounded distracted but Lance didn’t mind.

“Bye Keith, and good luck with your friend.” the smile was still on Lance’s face.

“Right… thanks.” It was hesitant but it seemed genuine rather than sarcastic like their earlier conversation. The line went dead and Lance hung up the receiver. Lance had to admit that he liked talking to Keith, even though the conversation was short and probably didn’t mean much to the other. Still, Lance was appreciative for a distraction from the boredom.

“What was all that?” A soft voice called out from beside Lance. He looked over to see Allura, his coworker. She looked curious and nodded in the direction of Lance’s phone when she saw his confused expression.

“Oh, just a wrong number.” Lance shrugged and was pulled away from his thoughts by yet another phone call. He picked up the line and let himself forget about the strange interaction.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now what's going on with Keith?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is longer than the first chapter as promised! Enjoy!

If there was one person who had self-destructive habits, it was Keith Kagone. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d been completely sober for more than a couple hours at a time if that was anything to go by. Not to mention what that all said about his mental state. If you asked pretty much anyone, they would said his issued stemmed from him being a total pothead, addicted to the feeling of not being entirely in control of his own mind. That wasn’t at all true though. The reason he got high wasn’t because he wanted to actually be high. It was more rooted in the fact that he didn’t want to be sober and be crushed under his constant berating thoughts.

Though when he had accidentally phoned the Mental Health Hotline and talked to that guy- what was his name again? Oh yeah Lance- it had been the first time of him being sober in a long while.

Now this isn’t to say that every moment of every day Keith was inhaling weed like it was oxygen. He always made sure to sober up for exams or on the odd occasions that he was driving somewhere. Also he made sure to never let himself be high when he was working at his job at the bar a few blocks from the University he attended.  
If there was one thing that Keith was good at other than being high, it was drawing. His art was one of the few things he could bring himself to actually be proud of. Especially when it came to drawing people.

Speaking of… lately Keith had found himself drawing one person in particular more and more often.

The guy’s name was Taylor, someone who was in a good amount of Keith’s classes since they happened to be in the same major. Keith would be lying through his teeth though if he claimed that he wasn’t crushing hard on him. Something about him just made Taylor seem so human. The fact that he oozed approach-ability probably didn't hurt things either. From what Keith could tell from watching Taylor interact with others was that he was outgoing as hell, vibrant, and practically radiated goodness. He was everything that Keith wished he could be, everything that Keith wanted.

And he absolutely hated Keith.

As far as he was concerned, Keith hadn’t done anything to warrant being hated by Taylor. Then again, there wasn’t exactly hard proof of Taylor hating him to begin with. Mainly just the fact that the guy avoided Keith. Taylor flirted with anything that moved, and Keith honestly hated the fact that somehow he was pretty much the only one who didn’t make the list. He talked to everyone in their shared classes at least a few times, but not Keith, never Keith.

Now maybe that was all just due to Keith’s negative outlook on life that made things seem that way. In all likelihood, Keith wasn’t the only person Taylor didn’t talk to. Keith doubted it of course but that didn’t make it untrue. However, there was one thing that Keith couldn’t ignore and that was the glaring.

Keith knew for sure that he wasn’t making that shit up. Every time they happened to make eye contact, Taylor had a look of annoyance or frustration in his eyes. It hurt far more than Keith would ever bother to admit. Keith, for all intents and purposes, was smitten with this boy. He looked up to Taylor in a way and it fucking hurt to see how much the guy disliked him.

That day was no different from every other day for Keith. He was high off his ass and when he walked into his statistics class he managed to catch Taylor’s eye. The other clenched his jaw before looking away abruptly. Keith sighed to himself and sat down in the only open spot left which happened to be next to Taylor. 

Class went on as it always did for Keith. He was too high to really focus on anything other than drawing. Not that it mattered much, he was already ahead of the curriculum as it was. Instead he just sketched pictures of Taylor into his notebook margins like he always did.

After a good 30 minutes of drawing, Keith felt a tap on his elbow. Looking over, he saw Taylor of all people. Why was he staring like that? For once he didn’t have a look of annoyance on his face, but confusion. Keith stared back for a few moments before realizing that Taylor was talking to him.

“-drawing me?” Was all Keith could catch. It took roughly 4.72 seconds for Keith to put two and two together.

He hadn’t even thought through the fact that he had sat right next to Taylor. God he was such a fucking dumb ass. No matter how high he was he should have noticed. He had been drawing dozens of pictures of Taylor after all. They covered nearly both visible pages of Keith’s notebook.

And Taylor saw each and every one of them.

Keith felt as his entire face went crimson once that realization finally hit him. He grabbed his things, roughly shoving them all into his bags. Without looking back at Taylor, he stood and slung his bag over his shoulder. Keith walked out of the classroom, head down toward the ground. He didn’t care who stared. He didn’t care if Taylor hated him more for this. None of that mattered.

All he could focus on was the mantra of ‘you’re such a fuck up’ that played on loop in his mind.

***

Keith was undeniably, unabashedly drunk. He hadn’t meant to get drunk of course. Okay, maybe he had 100% meant to get drunk. Maybe the only reason he even started drinking was so that he could get drunk enough that he didn’t feel anything anymore. If that were the case, it wasn’t working.

“-e fuckin hatess meee…” Keith whined to himself as he held a half full bottle of vodka to his chest. Keith had a tendency to talk to himself when he was drunk. Then again it wasn’t like he usually had people around to talk to anyway.

Suddenly an idea popped into Keith’s head. He stumbled over to his phone. When he finally managed to grab it, he slowly but surely typed in the number he had accidentally dialed only a few days prior. It rang twice before someone picked up.

“Hello this is-” the voice was female and Keith immediately cut her off.

“Can I talk ta Lance?” he managed to slur out, definitely sounding more drunk to the woman on the other end of the line than he did to himself.

“I well…” She trailed off, sounding unsure at first. “Yes just give me a moment.” She sounded cautious but that didn’t register in his Keith’s brain.Instead he hummed as he waited. A few minutes passed before another voice came through the phone.

“Hello? This is Lance…” The guy’s voice was cautious but it still made Keith hum happily.

“Mm… Hi,” Keith slurred out lazily.

“Is there something I could help you with?” Lance asked. Keith let out a long hum, realizing that Lance didn’t know who was calling.

“‘S Keith. I wanted ta ask some adviceee,” Keith said slowly, hoping Lance could understand him despite his slurring.

“Oh Keith! Wait are you drunk?!” Lance said, concern lacing his tone. Wow Lance was such a good guy. He didn’t even know Keith and yet he still showed concern and care for a fuck up like him.

“Mhm ‘s okay though… oh yeah!” Keith exclaimed, suddenly remembering what he had called for. “Wanna asssk fur advice.”

“Alright buddy, what do you need advice on?” Lance’s voice was so soft, so gentle. Keith didn’t deserve to be treated so kindly.

“I fucked up reeeaaal bad. ‘S this guy I really like an’ he hated me. I dunno whatta do Lance! He’s such a nice guy an’ I really wanna getta know him but he keeps glarin’ at me! Mm so bad at people an’ ‘s jus perfect an’ I hate it an’-”

“Woah Keith dude why don’t you take a deep breath for me yeah?” Lance sounded worried. Keith wondered why for a moment before he realized that at some point through his rant he had started crying. He let himself down for a few minutes as Lance waited patiently.

“I jus… know I fuck shit up with ‘im but he hates meee and I jus wish he didn’,” Keith said quietly, having calmed down a bit by then.

“Maybe you should talk ta him…” Lance prompts gently. Keith groans.

“Suck at people though… wouldn’ know whatta say…” Keith looked down at his bottle of vodka and grinned. “Oooo wait if I go ta class like this I could talk ta ‘im!”

“Oh god Keith please don’t do that!” Lance practically shrieked. Keith let out another grumble and sighed.

“Why noooot?!” Lance scrambled over his words for a minute.

“I- fucking- you can’t just go to class drunk! Not to mention you shouldn’t talk to someone you like when you’re like this!” Lance pointed out.

“But Laaaaance!” Keith whined.

“No no nonono hell no!” Lance said stubbornly. Keith was annoyed but he also knew deep down that Lance was right about this. Lance was just trying to look out for him. Wait what?-

“Why’s it matter?” Keith asked suspiciously.

“Keith… just because I don’t know you personally doesn’t mean I want you to do something dangerous.” Lance’s voice was soft, gentle. God Lance was such a good guy. “Look buddy why don’t you get some sleep? Maybe drink some water, yeah?” Keith furrowed his brows, only focusing on one thing that Lance had said.

“Are we?” Keith asked in quiet confusion.

“Are we what?” Lance asked, also being confused now but for a different reason. He had no idea what Keith was referring to.

“Are we buddies?” Lance went quiet again, but only for a few seconds.

“We can if you want to be.” Lance offered, holding the same softness that it did before.

“Yeah.. why would-ya wanna be friends with me though?” Keith asked. He honestly didn’t know why Lance would want to be friends with someone like him. “I’m really fucked up.”

“But you’re human Keith. It’s okay to not be perfect. Nobody is.” Something about the way Lance said it just hit Keith like a punch in the gut. Tears flooded over and he cried quietly, curled around his vodka bottle.

Lance didn’t say anything this time. Instead he stayed quiet, allowing Keith to get everything out. And that’s exactly what he did. He cried silently except for the quiet gasps for air. He let out everything he’d been feeling for the longest time.

“Thank you…” Keith said softly after he managed to calm himself down a bit. He wiped the remaining tears away and sniffled a bit.

“Of course Keith… was there anything else you wanted to talk about?” Lance asked calmly, not wanting to set the other off crying again.

“Nah uh… Mm Lance can I call an’ ask for you again sometime?” Keith asked lazily, the exhaustion finally starting to creep in.

“Of course. And make sure you drink some water before you sleep yeah?” Lance reminded him. Keith smiled to himself a bit. He couldn’t get over how good of a person Lance was. No way in hell did Keith deserve that kindness.

“Mhm I promissse. G’night Lance.” Keith slurred out slightly. He could practically hear the smile in Lance’s response.

“Goodnight buddy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone noticed, yes, I changed the rating to mature. I did this just in case since a lot of topics that go on and will be discussed in this fic are gonna be pretty serious. Better safe than sorry! See you all next week <3

**Author's Note:**

> The next chapters should be a bit longer than this one btw! Also a huge thanks to my role play friends for letting me rant to them about this story idea. You know who you are


End file.
